There is no dearth of air travelers despite slowdown in aviation sector of the country. Air travel registered positive growth of about 17 per cent in October. It’s surprising, while domestic aviation industry is facing tough situation following global slowdown, high input costs and liquidity crunch. Some airlines have also started retrenchment drive in a line to cut additional cost besides adopting other cost cutting measures.

According to the official travel data released today, the total number of passengers flown by domestic airlines increased to 31,33,000 which was 26,76,000 in the last month. Fair hike and additional charge on boarding could not restrict people to travel by air. Jet airways attracted maximum number of travelers than any other domestic airline. Total of 617000 passengers availed the services of jet for traveling in the reporting month with market share of 19.7 per cent.

Air India followed Jet Airways and provided services to 445000 passengers. Kingfisher Red carried 4,18,000 passengers with market share of 13.3 per cent in October. Other airlines such as IndiGo , SpiceJet , JetLite , GoAir , Paramount and MDLR also registered positive growth in air travelers.However, overall market shares of almost all airlines reported decline in October.